Special Health Care Needs
Rahul Nagda, DDS
Resident
UCSF School of Dentistry
UCSF School of Dentistry
San Francisco, California, United States
Brent Lin, DMD
University of California San Francisco
Thuan Le, DDS, PhD
University of California San Francisco
Thomas Tanbonliong, DDS
Program Director
University of California, San Francsico
SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States
Thomas Tanbonliong, DDS
Program Director
University of California, San Francsico
SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate oral hygiene practice and home-care challenges in children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and compare it with typically developing peers (TDP).
Method: Parents of children aged 3-10 were recruited with 30 in each group. Age and gender of children were matched. Parents were asked to complete the questionnaire which asked about their demographic information, child’s oral care regimen, and their knowledge about dental care. Chi-squared tests were used to compare the distribution of categorical variables between the two groups, and unpaired t-tests for comparing means between the two groups.
Results: 47% of children with ASD had to travel more than 20 miles for their dental home compared to 13% with TDP(P < .05). Only 60% of ASD patients brushed twice a day with 70 % of parent reporting it is difficult to brush their child’s teeth compared to TDP where 93% of children brush twice daily with ease(P < .05). Significantly a smaller number of children with ASD (47%) allowed their parent to brush their teeth compared with 93% of TDP children(P < .001).
Conclusion: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder travel longer distance to find a dental home and face difficulty in maintaining their child’s oral hygiene.